OPINION In November 2006, San Francisco made history when the school
board made this the first big city in the nation to ban JROTC [Junior
Reserve Officer Training Corps]. The board's resolution, which called
for phasing out JROTC from high schools this June, stated that "JROTC is
a program wholly created and administrated by the United States
Department of Defense, whose documents and memoranda clearly identify
JROTC as an important
recruiting arm."

A poison pill was added to the resolution at the last minute: it called
for a task force to be set up to find an "alternative" program to JROTC.
The school district administration, in a particularly despicable move,
set up
the task force with more than 10 members supporting JROTC, and only one
member opposed.

Surprise! After sitting for almost a year, the task force failed to come
up with an alternative, so the school board rolled over and, except for
two courageous members ‹ Mark Sanchez and Eric Mar ‹ voted last December
to extend JROTC for another year.

In 2005, San Franciscans passed Proposition I by almost 60 percent,
declaring it "city policy to oppose military recruiting in public
schools." That same year, by the Army's own report, 42 percent of JROTC
graduates across the nation signed up for the military. As this country
enters its sixth year of the illegal occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan,
it's time for the school board to go back to its original decision to
kick the military out of our schools.

The school board must end JROTC ‹ now. JROTC is currently scheduled to
be "phased out," but not until June 2009. By then both Sanchez and Mar
will be
off the school board, and there will be little to prevent the military
from orchestrating a vote to extend JROTC indefinitely. If, on the other
hand, the school board votes to end JROTC this June as their original
resolution required, JROTC would be gone.

Two progressives on the board must be convinced to send the military
packing: Kim-Shree Maufas and Green Party member Jane Kim.

Both received endorsements from progressives. To convince them that they
risk such endorsements in the future, the JROTC Must Go! Coalition is
circulating the following statement: "We will look very closely at the
next school board vote on JROTC and will consider the votes carefully
when making any endorsements for future candidates."

Within a week, the Tenants Union, the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club,
and the San Francisco Bay View newspaper signed the statement. If Maufas
and Kim join Sanchez and Mar, we'll make history again.

Riva Enteen is the former program director for the National Lawyers
Guild and the mother of two San Francisco school district graduates.
Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a southern Italian queer atheist writer and
activist. For more information contact the JROTC Must Go! Coalition:
(415) 575-5543, jrotcmustgo.org, or write: JROTCmustgo@gmail.com.